Occupy Wall Street and the myth of technological death of the library

Lingel, Jessa

doi:10.5210/fm.v17i8.3845

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…I follow Shera (1970) in viewing the communicative function of the library as vital to its role in supporting local communities. Librarians communicate with patrons, and libraries themselves communicate local values and ethics in terms of the books they catalog (Berman 1971), the policies that govern them (Lingel 2012), and the spaces they provide (Mattern 2014). Thus the communication work of libraries takes place quite literally between patrons and library staff, while answering reference questions and recommending books, but communication also takes place less directly, through policies guiding collection development and daily operations, for example.…”

Section: Reimagining Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bookmobile Critique of Institutions, Infrastructure, and Precarious Mobility

Lingel¹

2018

Public Culture

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There is a mismatch between what libraries do and how they are perceived, between how they are used by local patrons and how they are used as punch lines in conversations about civic resources and technological change. In the United States, public libraries have been woven into the social and spatial fabric of neighborhood life, whether urban, suburban, or rural, and they enjoy immense popularity: According to a 2014 study from the Pew Research Center (2014), 54 percent of people in the United States use a public library each year, 72 percent of people live in a household with a regular library user, and libraries are viewed as important community resources by 91 percent of people. As library historian Wayne Wiegand (2011) has repeatedly pointed out, there are more public libraries in the United States than there are McDonald's. From a purely statistical viewpoint, the local library could be considered just as successful and as endemic to US social life as the Big Mac. Beyond their popularity, libraries are increasingly crucial as a space set aside for public use. Even as libraries continue to fulfill their traditional roles of offering references, services and reading materials, they also fill in gaps left by the disappearance of and lack of investment in other institutions (Mattern 2014). Instead of employment agencies, people use libraries to search for jobs and learn new skills, ranging from digital literacy to English as a second language. By offering programming, libraries have become de facto day care centers and after-school programs, as well as public meeting spaces for affinity groups and civic organizations. Both the scarcity of public space and the multiple services provided therein make libraries a vital public institution.

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Section: Reimagining Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%